Day 3: Breathtaking views, hairpin turns, switchbacks and snow

Yesterday was awesome. It was, in short, the entire reason for this trip.

First, if you, dear reader (assuming there are a few) wonder about why I post about the previous day in the morning, it’s exclusively due to being too exhausted in the evening to do it. It takes time to craft a blog post I’d be comfortable having the world read. 🙂

Anyway, on to the story:

I woke up yesterday, made my post, felt refreshed. I headed downstairs to the hotel breakfast, got a spot and broke out my road atlas, my iPad and some food. After hanging in there about 15 minutes or so, an older (50s) couple next to me started talking about the tornadoes in Kansas that was being talked about on the TV. So I casually dropped that I happened to drive through there the day before. As happens, eventually we got to chatting and they turned out to be very nice people.

They left, I studied my map and came up with a plan. I found a reference to the Lariat Loop, and ultimately came up with my own rural mountain road loop. Remember, the main road through Rocky Mountain National Park is still closed, so I skipped the National Park (which I have done before, so it’s not the end of the world) and stuck to the state roads. I figured out the game plan and checked out.

I started out going west on I-70 again, and took an exit for Colorado Route 58 toward Golden, CO. Shortly after taking the exit, I was driving in a magnificent canyon with gorgeous views all around and one hell of a fun place to drive. Traffic was fairly light and I stopped periodically to snap photos or let people who weren’t there to sightsee pass.

I kept my atlas by my side and and was prepared when there were junctions I needed to deal with. The main roads of interest I traveled were routes 119, 72, 7, and 36. I’m not sure if these are all county or state highways, but those are the numbers printed on the map and the signs. I basically gave myself as self-guided tour of the mountain areas just outside of Denver. The towns driven through included: Golden, Idaho Springs, Central City, Black Hack, Eldora, Nederland, Ward, Estes Park, and Lyons (and possibly others).

The weather was perfect. I couldn’t ask for a nicer day. Few clouds, brilliant blue skies, crisp fresh mountain air. Since the weather can be fickle from one day to the next, I decided to take as much advantage as possible and see as much scenery as I could. My total driving yesterday was about 7.5 hours and around 320 miles. A far cry from the 900 mile days from a couple days ago, but still a lot of driving. I saw some nice cars on the mountain roads. Strangely I have not seen a single MK7 GTI or Golf since I crossed the Mississippi River. Lots of other non-American car brands. I guess VW just doesn’t get the love in the middle of the country.

Eventually I stopped for a late lunch at a Pizza Bar place in Lyons. I had a beer (first of the trip) and a pizza. It was very good, but afterwards I felt like all the unhealthy food I’ve been eating since the beginning of this journey is starting to catch up to me. When I left lunch I headed back to the rural roads and eventually got back on I-70. I decided to go west since the weather was still good because I wanted to go through the Loveland pass tunnel and see the scenery. It was gorgeous as expected. Interstate 70 through the Rockies is definitely an engineering feat. To put a large highway where they did takes a lot of work, money, and engineering. It is definitely a road America can be proud of.

By this point, the weather was clouding up, and even a few times there was snow coming down. So after all that driving and going  even further west on I-70, I turned around and headed back to Denver. It was getting late in the day, and the weather had turned. Big storms were approaching. After pondering it for awhile, I decided to head back to the same hotel I stayed at the night before. While it’s about $15-20 more than I would’ve liked, it’s a nice new hotel and it’s right off the highway.

Most of the photos I took yesterday went on the DSLR which isn’t getting offloaded until I get back. I tried to take various pictures with my cell phone to share on this blog, however iPhone pictures, even on the iPhone 6 which I have, still come nowhere near my baller Canon DSLR.

The trip is going well, and seems to be going fast. It’s already Tuesday! Today, in a few hours, I will be leaving Denver. While I didn’t do anything touristy downtown, that wasn’t the plan or the point of this trip. The point was to get to the (real) mountains and go for some awesome scenic drives and get some good photos. I’m happy to say that was successful!

But, I’m not done yet! Even though it’s already Tuesday, it’s only Tuesday. Today I plan to continue the journey west on I-70 and ultimately make my way to Salt Lake City. The plan is to lay my head down in SLC tonight. According to my atlas it’s almost 8 hours away, without any stops. Of course I will stop a few times. I plan to stop in Grand Junction, Colorado, which appears to be the last major stopping point for a few hundred miles past that point. I will stop and ensure a full gas tank and an empty bladder.

There are no real plans for SLC. Get a good night sleep, snap some good photos. Get a nice meal. Then tomorrow, keep going further west! In fact, tomorrow will be the furthest west I will go. I am going to get on I-80W and take it all the way across Utah and across the Great Salt Lake Desert, home of the Bonneville Salt Flats. It should be scenic, if not completely flat and straight. Once I get to Nevada, I will turn North East. The exact route is still TBD, but after tomorrow every day will be getting closer to home again. I am missing Nancy and Blizzard, so that’s not a bad thing. That being said, I have plans to see more things before starting the epic drive east, such as the Grand Tetons.

Stay tuned!